The likelihood of a full season next year seems pretty low and Marion isn't 38. The Mavs are also really deep so they haven't been wearing their players out. Who is going to stop them in the West especially if they have a healthy Caron Butler? The only team that seems likely to come out of the East at the moment is the Heat - unless the Bulls can add someone to take the load off of Rose.
He's built his career on making outrageous statements like that. Mind you, it says something about how poor a finals LeBron had when he suggest ditching James instead of Bosh. Bosh actually had pretty good play-offs, he's the only one of the big three who consistently played near or at the level he was expected to.
Now that Cuban has shown that his quality of getting all good role players and a good coach to surround his one superduper star actually works, I don't see why the Mavs can't get back to the Finals. The West is full of too old teams and too young teams and they dominated them this postseason. Hell, they dominated for long stretches in the regular season too, just kind of fell apart down the stretch but somehow got it going again. Even if some of the older players get the Finals hangover and aren't contributing next season I think Cuban will be able to somehow find newer parts to fit in. Shawn Marion embarrassed him a couple times down low. Maybe this is what finally motivates LeBron to learn a post up game. Yeah, probably not. He really is turning into a villain. It's funny that even in losing he's still going to be the most popular topic to come out of the series. It kind of reminds me of another Miami superstar, The Rock, who jobbed three straight Wrestlemanias at the height of his wrestling fame and yet it didn't diminish from his popularity/notoriety one bit. The difference is that the NBA isn't scripted entertainment (as far as we can prove ) and sooner or later a new Heir Jordan will come along and grab everyone's attention. If LeBron doesn't start winning soon he'll never ascend higher than the Barkley and Malone level of greatness.
Well at least Malone and Barkley were the biggest stars on their teams for most of their career (not counting Malone's Lakers season). But is there still any doubt after these play-offs that the Heat still are and always will be Wade's team?
Or Barkley's Rockets tenure... LeBron should take a steel chair to Wade and claim the Heat for himself. Bob Ryan said it best. There isn't a day in his life that Wade woke up and he was a better player that day than LeBron. It's definitely Wade's team but I think he needs to realize moving forward that LeBron has a better chance of winning him a ring than the other way around.
Terrific article on Dirk form Marc Stein. And a video interview with the improbably comely Hannah Storm. Dirk says he left the court in the last few seconds because he was getting too emotional. From the article, the list of MVP's without a ring is down to six: Barkley Malone Iverson Nash Rose James
Wow... so after winning the Finals, Cuban has a cuban on the plane... and the Mavs, in this spring, decide to take their talents (and the trophy) to South Beach. This is Sunday night in Club LIV at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. Talk about rubbing it in. At least somebody got to celebrate a title in Miami last night.
The Bulls held them to under 100 too. That's the easy part against the Heat. The hard part is scoring. Actually, I think the offense is the hard part period. Lots of NBA teams can play good defense when they try. Athletes who lift weights and work hard are a dime a dozen. It's kinda like soccer that way, getting a bunch of grafters to muck up the opponents and keep down the score is a lot easier than collecting real talent and building a great offense.
I doubt he cared much about either of them at that point. I think it was just the emotions of finally achieving his goal after so many setbacks and disappointments.
One of the things nobody's commented on is how first Ray Allen ran Wade into the ground (he never really got his legs back), then Terry ran LeBron ragged. It was silly of Spoelstra to do that to his two big guns. And if he felt he had to do that, then he should have made Bosh the go-to guy on offense against the Mavs. He could have eaten Dirk alive on the pick-and-pop if they ran it more than once a quarter. They need to pick up a combo-guard (Nolan Smith?) with decent size who can chase guys around the perimeter and knock down open shots. Neither Chalmers nor Bibby could do it consistently, and that sapped the energy of the big 2.
He was for three rounds. Not sure anyone could do that amount of chasing and still be the featured player on offense. Kobe didn't guard Allen more than 1/4 of the time over the past few years, and didn't guard Ginobili or Hamilton when the Lakers would face the Spurs or Pistons except for the 4th quarter.
LeBron didn't cover Allen either. I remember when the big thing last season was he was gonna guard Rondo, and couldn't, and Terry calling him out in the finals and LeBron not shutting him down? He couldn't guard Marion, or Dirk when it mattered either, and people want to make excuses for him, I just think the all NBA defensive team has become like gold gloves, extremely inaccurate. he is a flashy defender when it comes to weak side help and catching guys on fast breaks, but one of the 5 best in the league? Don't think so.
Absolutely, he was already teary eyed when he left the court. Well deserved accolades and achievements for Nowitski. He and the Mav's played great and the Heat folded like a cheap suit. LeBron is no Michael Jordan. Completely failed to seize the moment and take control of the Finals. Some players have it others don't. His Airness had it as a freshman at North Carolina. Remember he hit the game winning jumper from near the baseline to beat Georgetown.